London Courtyard Blooms With Year-Round Color
A once shady and dull outdoor space is transformed into a garden filled with beauty and scent in every season
A tall cedar and an overgrown fig were the defining features of this courtyard garden when Stefano Marinaz was asked to redesign it. The garden he created, completed in September 2015, preserved both trees and was arranged around them to form an asymmetrical design.
The space now features ample seating, beautiful lighting and smart plantings. From bulbs to evergreens, the specimens packing this small garden provide an ever-changing display of shape and color. To chronicle its seasonally evolving look, landscape designer Marinaz photographed the garden in 2016, from February, when winter bulbs thrive, through to its abundant summer glory in mid-July.
The space now features ample seating, beautiful lighting and smart plantings. From bulbs to evergreens, the specimens packing this small garden provide an ever-changing display of shape and color. To chronicle its seasonally evolving look, landscape designer Marinaz photographed the garden in 2016, from February, when winter bulbs thrive, through to its abundant summer glory in mid-July.
At the rear of the garden, Marinaz created an interesting trellis of iroko wood, which screens the boundary wall and provides bold vertical lines. This contrasts with the softer feel of the two walls to either side, which are covered in jasmine and other lush plantings.
The trellis is made up of 3-by-3-inch poles that are 6½ feet high. “These poles are quite thick and staggered in two lines,” Marinaz says. “You can also swivel them, so the design doesn’t feel static, repeated and boring. You can actually change the appearance of this rear wall whenever you like.” The iroko will take on a silvery tone as it weathers.
The planting is predominantly white. “The owners like white and green, and we added a few accents of purple,” Marinaz says. The garden is quite shady, so most of the plants are also shade-tolerant specimens. Seen here in mid-July, Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’ is in full bloom.
BEFORE: When Marinaz was asked to design the garden, it had little planting, but it did have a tall cedar tree, measuring about 45 feet high, in the left-hand corner. It can be seen clearly from the street outside.
The garden also featured invasive bamboo and the fig tree, which hadn’t been pruned for many years. “The space was very shady, and the owners weren’t really using it much,” the designer says.
Marinaz decided to preserve the fig tree since it provided shade for one corner of the house in summer and screened the view over neighboring properties. “I wouldn’t have planted it myself, but its size and history made it worth keeping,” he says. “It wasn’t damaging the boundary wall at all, so we were happy to preserve it.”
AFTER: Marinaz cut back the fig hard, and it’s now trimmed and retrained every year to keep it looking its best. “It now looks designed and maintained rather than overgrown,” he says.
Five tall planters, handmade from clay, line the left-hand side. “They act like punctuation points along the jasmine wall,” Marinaz says. He also chose them for their 4-foot height. “The idea was to break up the height of the wall a bit.” So rather than go from the top of the wall to the ground with nothing to look at, there are stepped focal points, from the planters to the sofa and then to the planting at ground level. “It’s more pleasing to the eye,” he says.
The tall planters feature strong horizontal lines. “The timber posts of the trellis are vertical, while these have horizontal lines, so it’s a nice contrast,” Marinaz says. “I like to play with geometry.”
Planters: Atelier Vierkant
Planters: Atelier Vierkant
The garden furniture can remain outdoors all year and has special covers to protect it from harsh winter weather. The frames are made from iroko wood, tying in beautifully with the trellis.
Sofas: Roda via Minotti
Sofas: Roda via Minotti
Two poufs upholstered with rope provide additional informal seating and can easily be moved around.
Otto poufs: Paola Lenti
Otto poufs: Paola Lenti
The original York stone paving was reused in the newly designed garden. “We lifted it all up and cut the stones to make bands of different widths that run in regular lines,” Marinaz says. “Before, it had been laid in a random pattern. This looks less chaotic.” Marinaz found a few additional reclaimed paving stones to fill gaps and complete the design.
Side tables (in corner): Roda via Minotti
Side tables (in corner): Roda via Minotti
Garden lighting helps the space function after dark. Six lights sit at the bottom of the trellis, and there are four lights between the five tall planters. On the right-hand wall, there are three more uplights.
“Lighting creates visual interest,” Marinaz says. “Even when you’re not outside using the garden, you can enjoy seeing it from indoors.” The lights are remotely controlled from anywhere in the house.
“Lighting creates visual interest,” Marinaz says. “Even when you’re not outside using the garden, you can enjoy seeing it from indoors.” The lights are remotely controlled from anywhere in the house.
Two multitasking tables, both with iroko wood tops, sit on the terrace. The larger one contains storage, while the smaller one houses three cylinders of eco-fuel, which can easily be lighted to create a small fire pit.
Storage table and fire-pit table: Atelier Vierkant
Storage table and fire-pit table: Atelier Vierkant
Marinaz planted the garden with a diverse selection of evergreens, perennials and bulbs to provide great variety and to create new combinations of color and scent in every season. This shot was taken in early February 2016 and shows pretty Cyclamen coum bringing color to the tall planters.
The garden in February features soft flashes of color from the planting, which includes Cyclamen coum, Cyrtomium falcatum, Trachelospermum jasminoides and Viburnum opulus ‘Sterile’.
In early March, the beds are bursting with Cyclamen coum, Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’ and Narcissus ‘Thalia’.
This planter, also photographed in early March, is brimming with soft color. Cyclamen coum and the common snowdrop, Galanthus nivalis, grow alongside the taller Helleborus orientalis.
By May, Narcissus ‘Thalia’ blooms in the tall planters behind the elegant outdoor sofa.
Flowers with purple tones, including this orchid, Cypripedium formosanum, break up the predominantly white scheme in May.
This beautiful hydrangea is a key component of the garden and delivers a changing color palette throughout the seasons. “It comes into flower in May and is lime green, then it turns to white in full summer, then in late August and September, the flowers become more lime-toned again,” Marinaz says. “It’s a big plant, which creates impact, but because it changes color, you get a lot from it.”
This variety is Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’, photographed in mid-July 2016.
This variety is Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’, photographed in mid-July 2016.
Marinaz also worked on the outside space at the front of the property. “Bamboo was invading it, which can damage the foundations of the wall,” he says. “There were two yews in pots but nothing else. The space by the railings was empty and prone to gathering litter.”
Custom planters were positioned on either side of the main door, and Marinaz added three more yew trees. “This links up with the existing trees and makes it feel like one property in terms of planting,” he says. The trees had previously been in 30-inch pots but now sit in 13-foot-long planters so that their roots have a chance to expand.
Marinaz chose the same style of planting at the front as at the back to unify the look. “It’s about 40 percent evergreen, and 60 percent perennials and bulbs that change through the seasons,” he says. “The bulbs flower, then disappear, and something else pops up.”
Photographed in mid-July, this bed features Agapanthus ‘Arctic Star’, Allium sphaerocephalon, Verbena bonariensis and Thalictrum delavayi.
See more stories about urban gardening
Photographed in mid-July, this bed features Agapanthus ‘Arctic Star’, Allium sphaerocephalon, Verbena bonariensis and Thalictrum delavayi.
See more stories about urban gardening
Who lives here: A family of five
Location: South Kensington, London
Size: About 20 by 23 feet (6 by 7 meters); at the end of a Grade II-listed row of townhouses
Designer: Stefano Marinaz Landscape Architecture
Access to the garden from the house is on the right-hand side, down a short run of steps. The old fig tree grows in the right-hand corner.
“We let its asymmetrical position on-site determine the asymmetry of the final garden design,” he says. “I prefer an asymmetrical layout anyway, particularly in a small garden like this. If things are too symmetrical, it makes the space feel even smaller and looks very predictable. This is more interesting.”